Hey all, so I came down with a positive Covid test today. Given the timeline, I'm guessing I was infected on Sunday right at the tail end, which makes sense given that I know a few other folks we spent time with who've since come up positive.

Basically 1/3 of the people I know who went to MFF at this point have had a positive test, so long story short if you went? Get tested. I only started showing symptoms today and they're relatively minor, but I still tested positive, so. Get tested.

We're doing fine, btw. Quadruple vaxxed and we've had it before, so it's just a minor cough. We are hibernating at home now.

I'm home from Midwest Furfest, and getting started on catching up over on Patreon/Emails, etc. I am not certain if I'm streaming on Thursday, likely not because I have a doctor's appointment. I'll make announcements if I'm able to.

Massive thanks to everyone who stopped by my table or picked something up at the art show. Y'all keep a roof over our heads, and I'm eternally grateful <3

Hey there! Happy 'eat too much with your family/found family day'. Really that's every day at my house, I can't speak for y'all, but nonetheless....
NSFW READING STREAM TONIGHT!
9 PM EST, so everyone has time to eat dinner and digest
https://picarto.tv/Rukis

An announcement to everyone trying to get in touch with me right now-
Hotmail has really been on the strugglebus recently, especially this month. I am missing emails, and have had several I've sent out bounce back to me as 'undeliverable'.

Please, if you are trying to get my attention but aren't hearing back, contact me at - rukisart[at]gmail.com

I have no way of knowing what I'm missing, it's anxiety-inducing in the extreme, and I don't want anyone feeling ignored. Very sorry!

We are going to be at BLFC next week, at Booth 13 in the vendor hall. It is a HELL of a haul for us (SC to Reno, NV) so please come by and say hi!

I will have EXTREMELY limited commissions available this week, so be sure to hit us up on Friday if you want a chance to nab one. We'll also have all the usual good stuff, and art in the art show!

We are bound for BLFC in our van packed with our polycule and SMUT, all the way from Greenwood, SC to Reno, NV! Wish us fucking luck, WOOOOO!

We're leaving on Friday, so I have been hard at work updating Storenvy, pulling down things that are coming with us, and uploading a whole bunch of Original pieces of art. I'd be just as happy for them to find their forever homes before we leave for the con, so please consider giving 'em a look : )

https://rukis.storenvy.com/products

I have been in Baldur's Gate 3 land for the better part of the last three days, and my email has once again built up. Give me a day or so to get through it, apologies if you're waiting on a response!

Since the bird spot is becoming more and more hostile, while I will keep using it for the time-being (really no other choice as a working artist) I have opened up alternative accounts!

Bluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/rukis.bsky.social

Mastodon - https://mastodon.social/@rukis

Please consider following me over there. It will encourage me to keep using them XP

Hey all! This might sound dire, but it's actually GREAT news. I'm finally upgrading my 8-10 year old rig (depending on which parts we're talking about) Anyone who's been on my streams knows how much trouble I've had with it for years. We're replacing everything that needs replacing (which is most of it) and doing a total rebuild. I'm very, very excited to not have the anxieties of another hardware failure hanging over my head in the future.

Anyway, computer is going to be down until Wed. I'm getting it back tomorrow but I'm going to take some time to clean and reorganize the office, as well as get it set up. No stream Tuesday, I'll see you all on Thursday's stream tho!

Posting about this everywhere so no one's surprised. The verdict is in! My ancient, aging beast of a computer is going in for a total re-build on Fri, 7/21, and should be back to me in time to cover all streams this week. So thus far, Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday at 8 PM EST are still on! If things change I'll keep y'all updated!

Packaging today! If you're expecting something from me, check your email by tomorrow for a Stamps.com notification. Remember that all orders with a silver coin are delayed as these were a Pre-Order, and I need to ship your entire parcel together!

Since we didn't get into FWA's den this year, I've decided to finally sell a whole bunch of Originals I've had sitting on ice for literally half a decade to... a full decade, in some cases here. Any and all sales here will not only help us close a financial gap in our year, but help us stock up for AC! Which means potentially new stuff *eyebrows eyebrows*

EVERY order, no matter how small, has the option to include a free sticker/postcard pack. Just put it in your cart!

And yep, those are all ORIGINAL pages from Red Lantern, as well as others ; )

https://rukis.storenvy.com/

We had a very long weekend fraught with difficulties on, at, and coming back from TFF. Booth equipment not making the trip, weather, and eventually near the end, a lost credit card. I'm doing my best to catch up on all emails and communications today. Bear with me.

Red Lantern - 'Sacrifice', Book 3 in the Red Lantern series, is now premiering over on Patreon at the $5/month tier! 2-3 pages posting every month. This comic is practically a full-time job in and of itself, so please consider supporting its creation! All NSFW pages will post there as well, and pages I post there will be higher resolution. I have 10 pages of Book 3 posted so far, and Amon is returning this month <3

https://www.patreon.com/Rukis/posts.....=Red%20Lantern

Because I know I will get this question, pages will eventually post here and on Twitter, I'm just not sure when, yet. I want to use Patreon as a bit of a beta process, like I've been doing for my novels. It's really helpful.

The Male and Female Menagerie Lists are now OPEN for Subscriptions Via the Kickstarter, or Via Email

Our Kickstarter ends in TWO DAYS, so you're running out of time to get the merch tiers if you wanted one!

Kickstarter - https://www.kickstarter.com/project.....ling-list-2023
To Subscribe Via Email for the MALE List, contact us at: menageriesubs[at]hotmail.com
To Subscribe Via Email for the FEMALE List, contact us at: rukiscroax[at]hotmail.com

Menagerie is a Mailing List where subscribers receive many pieces of ALL MALE, or ALL FEMALE Adult-oriented artwork that will never be posted by us online. Each list includes 52 images in total, for $20 /year. That means if you subscribe to both lists, you get 104 images total. You'll receive the art over the course of 2023, digitally delivered to your email inbox. The images are all drawn by  Rukis and  Ulos12

Menagerie focuses on diversity, covering a wide variety of species /breeds throughout the year, as well as a range of body-types. You'll also see some of the characters from the Red Lantern universe sprinkled in through there, and even some fanart.

The Male and Female Menagerie Lists are now OPEN for Subscriptions Via the Kickstarter, or Via Email

Kickstarter - https://www.kickstarter.com/project.....ling-list-2023
To Subscribe Via Email for the MALE List, contact us at: menageriesubs[at]hotmail.com
To Subscribe Via Email for the FEMALE List, contact us at: rukiscroax[at]hotmail.com

Menagerie is a Mailing List where subscribers receive many pieces of ALL MALE, or ALL FEMALE Adult-oriented artwork that will never be posted by us online. Each list includes 52 images in total, for $20 /year. That means if you subscribe to both lists, you get 104 images total. You'll receive the art over the course of 2023, digitally delivered to your email inbox. The images are all drawn by  Rukis and  Ulos12

Menagerie focuses on diversity, covering a wide variety of species /breeds throughout the year, as well as a range of body-types. You'll also see some of the characters from the Red Lantern universe sprinkled in through there, and even some fanart.

We will be launching our Menagerie Kickstarter, along with all of the rare, yearly commission slots and Dealers Choice pics, next Monday - 1/16 - at 5 PM EST

Preview Link is Up! - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rukis/1046535050?ref=6bnfgt&token=2856bbc8

I wanted to clear up any misconceptions y'all might have had about the announcement I made a few days ago. So let's get into it.

Here is what actually happened with the FWA Selection Process for the Den this year. I have this directly from a staffer, and since everyone is assuming the worst here, I think I really need to clear things up. These things should be transparent anyway, imho. Also a lot of folks are getting needlessly angry, which is not something I wanted. So, I'd like to do something about that.

I applied for a larger space than your average artist's table for FWA this year, because we started creating new, exciting stuff that has now been a mainstay for us at events for the last two years. Namely, RPG stuff. Playmats, hand-made dice, etc. I also have an expanding portfolio of comics, novels and artbooks, so we're a book vendor as well. Anyone who's seen my table at events can attest- we have a lot of different wares on offer, and given that our dice sell out at nearly every con we go to now, and our books are our biggest seller, I don't consider this new merchandise to be something we can strip away. I'm still an artist table - literally everything we carry was made by me, even the dice. But we need more than a 4 ft by 8 ft space these days.

This category was- unknown to me when I applied- EXTREMELY limited, due to issues with laying out the den space this year. Something involving electric, I think (we don't require electric but I'd imagine mapping it out affects how they divy up their space). As in, they had TWO spots available, and six of us applied. And apparently we all tied? Something like that. So, at this point, I have to imagine (because on this I'm unclear) the choosing was reduced to a lottery, to keep things fair. Again, can't verify that, but what else are you going to do when multiple vendors in a category somehow tied in your voting process?

I don't win lotteries XP Ask anyone who's played D&D with me. I have the worst luck on the planet. And this, THIS, not a disinterest in my content, or my age as a vendor, or any metric of 'goodness', is why I was rejected. I have had this - REPEATEDLY - reinforced to me by the staff, and despite my worst tendencies of self-loathing, at this point I believe them. I also wanted to say they have absolutely zero reason to be this communicative or open with me regarding this process, and they've been incredibly polite and kind the whole way. I feel awful about the folks insulting or harassing them, and if you're one of them, PLEASE STOP.

This next part I'm going to lead with: I love this con. It's the first convention that's ever asked me to be a GOH, it was an incredible GOH experience, I released the first Red Lantern that year, and it's my home con. I love Atlanta and this is always the chillest event we do. The staff are great, (again please don't bother them). The idea of dropping it absolutely breaks my heart. But. BUT. I do have what I hope is some understandable frustration with this situation. First off I need to admit I have personal baggage here: we bought our first home this year, and this is the worst possible year for us to lose a staple con in our yearly income, a con which for a decade now was a reliable 'in' for us. So, some of this is coming from a place of hurt. But I also think it's right to be honest, especially with an event where the staff have repeatedly asked me to give them feedback every year.

I am absolutely willing to give the overworked staffers doing their best here some time to figure out the space in the Den. They have urged me to stay on the waitlist. I am doing so. We'll see what happens.

But as a vendor. To anyone who is listening. If there is a voting system in place in which multiple vendors in a category, especially a small category, can tie... that is essentially a lottery. And I stopped applying to conventions who ran their den that way long ago. You either get into a den on your own merits or you don't. You're either judged or you're randomly chosen. There just isn't an in-between. We have to plan out our years financially far in advance, as vendors. Yes, more than six months in advance. Because other applications have to be made, if our chances at our mainstay cons are randomized. And no, I don't think applying to a ton of conventions I don't plan to go to, as 'safety cons', is a good choice. That is flooding their staff with pointless applications, and wasting their time and mine. I rely on my merits, my skill and my experience in my field, as well as my portfolio, perhaps more than I should... but apparently this wasn't even due to a lack of merit. That makes our financial future EXTREMELY hard to plan for, ironically more so than if we just 'weren't good enough' with our application this year, because it is not something I can fix or improve. And what's on the line here is life stuff. Big, big stuff. Not just a little extra cash one month. If a convention becomes unreliable in a way we cannot personally improve our chances at, it drops out of the rotation : ( I can't roll the dice on whether I can pay my mortgage in the spring. I just can't. And I'd imagine many of the other vendors who may have lost out for a similar reason, would feel the same if they knew.

Trying to find the silver lining here is hard. We'll have more time to focus on the garden and livestock this spring, so that's something. But for anyone who thinks we artists can just do an online sale, even when those go well... it's like 1/4 what we might make at a con. There's no making up for the loss of one of these. There just isn't.

If FWA becomes a no-go for me going forward, that hurts... but I keep trying to tell myself, at least someone else will occupy my space there. Maybe someone at the beginning of their career, who never had a shot before. I am trying to focus on that, and it's helping. It is hard, because this is literally about survival for us, but I of course understand others are in that position, too. I hope our absence there is a boon to someone else, genuinely. I'm really sorry to any folks who were hoping to see me there this year, purchase something from me, talk about or get a book signed, etc. Like I said, the staff has urged me to stay on the waitlist and for now, I'm doing so. But I'm not hopeful.

That was a lot. But I felt I had a duty to dispel any of the weird rumors surrounding this, and make my honest opinions on the situation known. I hope I did okay.

It seems I've been Waitlisted for the Furry Weekend Atlanta Dealers Den this year, so I wanted to let y'all know now that I won't be attending. FWA is essentially my local con being only 2 hours away, and it's been a solid mainstay in my yearly 6 conventions for over a decade now, so it's a real blow being unable to attend and vend. But I can't go if I can't sell, that's just how it is for us. Especially this year, when we just bought a home. Things are really tight.

I checked to be certain, it's not their registration bug - we genuinely just didn't make the cut. I am going to look down the line for early 2023 to see what alternate plans we can make to get us to summer, maybe an online sale, but I will probably be asking to be taken off the waitlist in the coming week. We can't hold out hope for something uncertain that is so critical to our financial planning for a year.

I'm sad, I'm not gonna lie. I mean, I haven't not cut the mustard for their jury process in a decade, so it's making me wonder where I went wrong. Anxiety brain is in overdrive. But it seems fruitless to flail about it. I'll miss Atlanta this year, we always have a restaurant we like to go to and we usually visit the Aquarium. I will miss seeing a lot of folks I only see in Georgia every year, as well. If you're one of 'em, you know who you are! And I'm really sorry if you were expecting to see me there this year, get a book, chat... like I said, close though it is, we just can't attend without a table.

Trying not to panic XP I'm not sure what I'll do in the spring to make up for the loss, but we'll find something. We always do.

*UPDATE* Folks I can't believe I need to say this, but please do not harass FWA Staff over this! If I was ever going to do this convention again, this is certainly seeding ill will, and it's immensely frustrating to me that I might be painted as a troublemaker now because of this crap. You aren't helping! You are just causing undue pain for staffers who have no control over these outcomes, and ensuring I never get into this convention again. It is stressing everyone involved. STOP, please.

I am home, but really run-down after MWFF and dealing with a case of bronchitis (I'm on antibiotics, don't worry) So I'm hoping to be back on my feet in a few days. I've got a ton of backed-up email and orders, so just give me a bit to recover and I'll get right on it!

Thank you so much to everyone who stopped by our island at the con, and placed orders afterwards, y'all keep us and the dogs fed and this con really gave us a chance to fix some things around the farm. All my <3

Black Friday Sale! FREE SKETCH with Storenvy Orders over $50.
If you've been waiting on a shirt or two, or some prints, I've even got a few (very few) Originals up right now - https://rukis.storenvy.com
Make sure you add the 'Free Sketch' to your cart!

Today has been a very hard day for me. Trouble with family, trouble with the car, heat pump still isn't working and the house is cold.

I really need to sell some shirts this month. Please consider popping by if you haven't yet -
https://rukis.storenvy.com

As some may have already heard, we nearly lost our puppy Atlas to a GI obstruction last night. The surgery to save his life was almost 7k, which we absolutely did not have, so we've had to take on a very large debt with a short payoff period. I've put up as many Originals as I have for sale, and will post more as the night goes on -

https://rukis.storenvy.com/collecti.....8769-originals

All orders will come with a bunch of free stuff, as usual. 5x7 Prints, Stickers, and thank you cards. Please consider a piece of art, even if it's just a coin or a small print. We'd deeply, deeply appreciate it!

Grab Bags are BACK, BABY! Now with a BOOK!
This batch is a smidge more at $50 (cuz book), but still a helluva deal. $50 gets you -
A shirt in your size (S-4XL)
An 18+ Book or Comic
2 Big Stickers
Four 5x7 Prints
Two Small Matted Prints
One Bandana

All goodies are random pulls, except for the 5x7 prints, those you'll get the ones pictured.
* IF YOU GOT A BAG IN THE LAST BATCH and want a different T-Shirt, please just let me know when you email me, it's no problem!

Want one? Email me- rukiscroax[at]hotmail.com with your shirt size and mailing address

If you've ever been waiting on picking up a shirt or a print or some spicy digital art, now would be a great time ❤️
Thanks to the move, and more specifically the movers we hired on to help us with the heavy stuff charging us. . . literally 4x what they quoted (be careful with moving companies, this was my first time using one and I never will again) we're overdrafted, the move ended up eating through everything we'd put aside for the month. And as so often happens when you move, we lost a lot of our food.

SO, any sales this week will go directly to groceries! We'd appreciate any little thing : )

https://rukis.storenvy.com

https://rukis.gumroad.com/